After the luxury of the day off, the remaining 2044 players in the years Main Event will play 5 levels today which should see us get close to the bubble.
PartyPoker had 26 players still in the tournament and there was a definite air of nervous excitement in the Mike Sexton Suite this morning as the players arrived for breakfast. Our highest placed player was Miika from Finland who was in 12th position overall.
We also had Mike Sexton on 169,000 chips at the start of play. In total we had players starting with stacks as low as 26,800 and as high as 361,200. The short stacks would need to make a move because the blinds were starting at 600/1200 with a 200 ante. It was too expensive just to sit and wait for pocket aces.
No sooner had the guys gone off to take their seats then we had our first elimination of the day. Romain from France got his remaining chips in good with ace ten but was called by a player looking down at a pair of Jacks. The Jacks held up and we had our first casualty. “I will think about that hand for a long time” Romain told me as he headed for one of the massage chairs.
At the first break I was only aware of two further eliminations including Magnus from Sweden. Mike Sexton had chipped up to about 220,000 and Miika was still at about 350,000 chips. A couple of the guys had lost of chips with Petter from Norway crashing from over 220,000 to 50,000.
After the break I went back to the tournament room and quickly picked up on the rumour going around that Phil Ivey was now sat with renowned French player Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. This table was attracting more than its fair share of railbirds, particularly as it was right next to the door.
On the next table I could see a quiet Phil Hellmuth who probably did not enjoy the fact that the attention was not all on him, but he was getting on with his business all the same.
Over at the TV feature table, There was a good old battle going on with 2005 Main event champion, Joe Hachem in the thick of all the best action.
Just before the dinner break, one of my tips to go deep in this tournament, Katja from Norway came back into the suite and told me her WSOP dream was all over for another year. Katja never stops smiling even after busting out of the tournament but I’m sure she had a great time and will be back next year to try again.
As the players came back for the dinner break we worked out that we have either 11 or 12 players from the starting 26 still in the tournament. It is hard to keep track because some players come and tell us when they are out and others get the first cab back to the hotel.
Mike Sexton was now up to 330,000 chips and Miika was still hovering around the 370,000 mark. Other players had over 200,000 chips so I hope we see a good number of them make it through to day four and the money. As I write this we have just over 1 full level to go and there are 981 out of 6494 starting players left in the main event. The top 648 places will get paid.
That is it from me. I am about to jump on a plane and go back home after two enjoyable weeks in Las Vegas. I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Warren who will provide all the player updates and chips counts. Good luck to all our remaining players.
Jeremy Coleman